Road hazards

Tuesday

Jan 31, 2012 at 12:01 AMJan 31, 2012 at 10:48 AM

Two recent drunk-driving arrests serve as a reminder of a danger that is ever-present on the road: persistent drunk drivers who haven't yet crossed enough legal lines to be sent to prison. For a small but deadly subset, incarceration is the only thing that will prevent them from getting behind the wheel of a car, somebody's car, and driving.

Two recent drunk-driving arrests serve as a reminder of a danger that is ever-present on the road: persistent drunk drivers who haven’t yet crossed enough legal lines to be sent to prison.

For a small but deadly subset, incarceration is the only thing that will prevent them from getting behind the wheel of a car, somebody’s car, and driving.

Devices such as ignition-interlock systems that require an alcohol-free breath sample before the car can start, sometimes ordered by judges for multiple repeat offenders, prevent some from driving. But others borrow cars from misguided friends or relatives, and some just steal them.

At least one egregious repeat offender could be off the road soon. The law caught up with Lancaster resident John W. Wallace’s drunk driving in a most unexpected way: On Jan. 19, he drove himself to the local State Highway Patrol post — by way of a wrong-way exit from Rt. 33 and a shortcut across the lawn.

Wallace, 68, was there to give a ride home to his 45-year-old son, who had been picked up on a charge of drunk driving earlier in the evening.

The son, Michael W. Smith, hasn’t been charged with drunk driving before and won’t face any severe penalty.

For Wallace, however, this latest charge of operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated is his 13th . That turns what would be a misdemeanor offense into a felony, and means that Wallace could go to prison for 10 years if he’s convicted.

Motor-vehicle officials are frustrated by the difficulty of dealing with such cases. Lifetime license suspensions, which can be imposed on Ohio drivers only if they’ve killed someone with their car, are no more effective than shorter suspensions with hardcore offenders. “ Short of taking their car away or putting them in jail, there’s nothing you can do,” an official with the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators told The Dispatch in December.

In another notable OMVI arrest, Ralph Gipple, 46, of Hicksville in Defiance County, recently ran his car into a ditch and tried to run away, but a Defiance County deputy sheriff with a canine helper tracked Gipple to his mother’s house. The charge of OMVI is his 10th , but more importantly is his sixth within the past 20 years, which elevates it to a felony and puts him on the path to stiffer penalties if he is found guilty.

His case and Wallace’s will serve as indicators of Ohio’s ability to protect the public from obvious danger on the roads.